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Tuesday, January 5, 2010

India Shines - Indian Villagers Show the Way by Building Their Own Railway Station

Reading the newspaper daily makes one feel depressed most of the time, as most of the news items are related to dirty politics, scams, scandals, filmy gossip and as if all that was not enough, it adds to one's depression when we read news of students committing suicide for some vague reasons, molesters getting away with bribe, and what not. (I have decided to highlight such news items in this month that brings out a ray of hope for the people of India and shows that India is truly shining...Let us celebrate this year's Republic Day of India, 26 January, with Pride. Let us show the world what India is truly capable of. This series of news items will be labeled as "India Shines".) Read on...

But, today I saw a ray of hope in one particular news item tucked away in the sidebar of the 16th page. The news headline, " Villagers build own railway station" caught my attention and my curiosity was piqued to know more about this.

The villagers of Tajnagar near Gurgaon showed the true strength of the "Village Panchayat" and the "Gram Sabha" by passing a resolution to build their own railway station for the convenience of the people who had to travel long distances. The villagers had lobbied for a railway station in their village for 25 years, and when their demand was not met, they decided to take matters into their own hands and build one for themselves. They collected a sum of 21 lakhs from the people of the village and started work on it.

They then asked the railways if they would stop a few trains on this railway station, and the surprising thing is that they agreed. The railways has promised seven passenger trains, in both directions, to halt at the station if it was built as per the specifications required.

The Villagers showed the rest of India how they could carve out their own destiny and make development happen in their village. These people have made us all proud and we hope that their project will be a success. Hopefully, more and more people will learn from this and take steps to bring about development in their own villages, cities, towns etc..

Way to Go. We would love to read more such stories in the newspapers everyday!